Today’s workout was an odd mix – Double Unders and then Deadlift and Lateral burpees.

Warmup
dynamic stretching
2x–
10 push ups
10 pull ups
10 Squats
10 ?? (i have an issue remembering the warmup exercises lately)

Then we did some Gymnastics!
handstands (shifting weight)
Handstand walks with spotter

Skill

Deadlift

WOD

3min max Double Unders
Death by …
deadlift/lateral burpees

total: 35 DUs
145# – round 7 

I struggled through the DUs but managed to string a few along the more tired I got.  After the partying and eating this weekend – I was glad it wasn’t a full on endurance workout. I think I may have hurled if that was the case.

And now, I’m done with the fitness portion of my day. On with the workout –

Last year – my post was all about turning 40. I would say the 40th year was one of my best yet!

Workout was outside for part of it — the joy of a balmy 40 degree outside workout. Nothing like it!

Warmup
800m run
General Stretching

WOD
3 Rounds

5/1 min stations with 1m rest between rounds

45# back Squats
tire flips
Slosh pipe walking lunges
ab mat situps
push ups

I have no idea total reps completed – it got to be cumbersome to count. Suffice it to say I did a lot!

Now I am off to get a nap in so I can be refreshed to head out for my CrossFit Ladies Birthday Bash. 18 of us are heading out for dinner and dancing to celebrate my and my pal Anna’s birthday! Woot Woot – watch out.

Feb 4 1995, I had a first date with this super cute guy I had met at work. 17 years later – my silver fox is still super cute.

Who knows what moments in your life change its course forever –

World Cancer Day is this Saturday, 4 February 2012. It is the occassion to unite the world in the fight against the disease through raising awareness, educating the public, and lobbying for change. 

It is only by every person, organisation, and government, individually doing their part, that the world will be able to reduce the global cancer burden.

So get involved and do something this World Cancer Day – because Together it is possible! 

In light of what’s going on with Susan G. Komen Foundation  - if you are looking for another non-profit to support that helps breast cancer patients and cancer patients around the world, consider the American Cancer Society.  They do great work for support and research and deserve lots of support from all of us!

Do I look tired in this pic or what — I took it after my CrossFit workout. Mary, one of the mean bad girls of CrossFit reared her head this morning and holy crap – she is a force to be reckon’d with.  I mean who invented pistols aka a one legged squat?  Squats are tough enough, now let’s be evil and make em do it with one leg. Jeesh.  Thank goodness for scaling -balance, coordination and strength all wrapped into one seems to challenge me every time – but practice makes better!

Warmup

General Stretching
3x—
25 DUs
10 Squats
10 Push Ups
10 ?? (I can’t remember for the life of me!)

Skill

Pistols (one leg squats)
Handstands

WOD

Mary
20m AMRAP
5 HSPU
10 Pistols
15 Pull Ups

Total: 10

Today’s workout felt great. My kipping is coming along and boy it makes a difference when you are doing long workouts with lots of pull ups. It’s night and day and it’s so energizing to me. Every time I get the right momentum, inside I get all giddy. I so, so, so  needed some progress to reignite me and there it is. Now — on to the rest of my day so I can get ready for my big birthday celebration tomorrow with the CF girls of CrossFit Impavidus. Watch out World — Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Today is my rest day — Sun, Mon, Tues, and Weds were all CrossFit days, so I figured it was OK to rest today. I don’t think anyone would argue with me.

I just signed up for the CrossFit Gymnastics Trainer Course. From the CF website:

At the CrossFit Gymnastics Trainer Course, Coach Tucker and his staff will delve into basic, intermediate and advanced gymnastics forms in a lecture setting followed by practical application. Skills will be repeated until the student has a full grasp and understanding of how to learn, spot and teach instructed methods safely. Instruction will include how to scale and spot all demonstrated movements for beginners and accomplished athletes.

I’m beyond excited for this in April. You should join me if you are in the area – here’s some info on how to sign up.

I read this short blog post yesterday: When mean girls become mommies and I thought about how it can be applied so much broader than just mommies. We all JUDGE — think about how sometimes when someone walks through the gym door or through the office halls and you immediately snap to judgement on who and what they are. We all do it – some more, some less. Do you ever think about why?

One of the things I have been told that boils my blood is Perception is Reality. I seriously think this is the biggest load of bullshit and excuses people from owning their judgement and seeing and knowing what’s going on and who a person is. I get that we all have filters that we use when we observe a situation, but it’s not unreasonable to expect people to stop and find out what’s the reality instead of just relying on their perceived reality.  It’s the easy way out and nothing worth having or experiencing comes easy. Think back to a time when someone or something surpassed your initial perception or judgement. You were glad you didn’t take things at face value and invested more time and found the value.

My friend Kimmy loves to share the story of the first time she met me – it was my first day at Boot Camp 3+ years ago. Look, I was no athlete and certainly didn’t look the part. I showed up 545A in July 2008 raring to go — with some fancy sunglasses on.  I am not ashamed to admit it – I was there to ‘workout’ and it was sunny. She thought I wasn’t going to last very long — HA!

I quickly found out that it wasn’t practical at all to be wearing Coach sunglasses and jumping all over the place. Well — what if she took her judgement of me from that experience and didn’t take the time to see who I was — well, we wouldn’t be friends today and would have missed out on some really fun times.  Just some food for thought — don’t let your initial judgement of someone cloud your ability to see the real truth.

Warmup

Mobility

400m run (to take advantage of the beautiful weather)

3x
10 OHS
10 Ring Rows
10 Push Ups
10 sit ups

400m run

Skill

Inverted ring Handstands/levers

WOD

15m AMRAP

10 Wall Ball Shots
8 Ring Dips
6 Pull Ups

total: 9+8(wall balls)

As I said earlier – this felt like a good workout. Hard and challenging but it just felt right this AM. I am sore but good sore — and of course the  beginnings of a kipping pull up are in place. Yahoo!

We are now at Feb 1st – what are you doing to reach your goals that you set at the end of last year? You may call them resolutions but I think that word alone sets you up for failure so I don’t use that word — Let’s call them goals.  And I think that any progress towards that goal is a ‘win’, even if its just a few steps forward.

I posted this quote the other day on facebook:

For all those wanting to start making changes in their life: You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. – Martin Luther King Jr.

And it’s so true — you have to have faith and trust that you will be ok, that you CAN do it.  We all have decisions we have to make that are hard every day — exercising regularly should in theory be one of the easy ones.  The pic to the left is one of the athletes at CrossFit. He’s a big dude — no doubt — and look he did a friggin inverted handstand on the rings today.  Do you think he thought he could do that EVER?  Well now he KNOWS he can do that and how awesome is that? What a Win for him today!

For me, I needed a win — I have felt like I hit a wall the past few months. My eating has been off, my workouts have been off and it’s a viscous cycle if you don’t address it. So on Sunday, during my workout with Kim – when we did pull ups, I started doing the Kipping Motion to help me get through them. Mentally I absolutely took note of it — but didn’t want to jinx it and didn’t want to mention it until I knew it wasn’t a fluke.

This morning’s workout had pull ups – and sure enough the Kipping motion was there. Now I did it with a blue band but I will go without once I am used to the technique. THERE IS MY WIN!  See how things come through when you are least expecting it.  I had a great workout this morning – felt strong and ahead of the curve and got my mojo back.

The moral of the story? Don’t let your rut stop you from progressing towards your goals. If you need a few days off – take it – get your mind right. The key is to not let it STOP you — you can pause and breathe — and get back to it. It’s way harder to stop and start again, mentally and physically.

And to refer back to the Tony Blauer Be Your Own Bodyguard seminar concept of it’s all in your head:

Whether you Think You Can or You Think You Can’t — You’re Right – Henry Ford.

Giant Step for Cancer Survivor Mark Herzlich

New York Giants’ rookie linebacker Mark Herzlich stepped off the plane in Indianapolis to play against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI and immediately took to Twitter to express his gratitude. He was thankful not just to be there, but to be alive.

“2 yrs ago I was told I might never walk again. Just WALKED off plane in Indy to play in The #SuperBowl. #TakeThatSh*tCancer,” he tweeted.

In 2009, Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. The cancer was isolated to his left leg and the initial prognosis was not positive for the promising Boston College football star.

“They felt the NFL was a long shot,” Herzlich’s father, Sandy, told ESPN last summer. “They were first happy if they could save his life and they were happy if they could save his leg.”

…Now, one year into his NFL career he’s walked off the plane in Indianapolis and is getting ready to run onto the field at Lucas Oil Stadium, two things, that just three years ago seemed nearly impossible.